46 C44: Lucky

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Currently in Chapter 64 in p@treon

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Beauxbatons | 12th September 1986 | 10:00 AM

"Could you be so kind and wake your friend up Charlus?" Professor Papillon asked Charlus. Charlus looked beside him and saw his roommate dozing in his chair. He shook Henri slightly and Henri opened his head. Henri looked around and saw everyone snickering. He then looked at Professor Papillon who was looking right back at him.

"I'm very sorry Professor. It's just that I was unable to pay attention to all the different plants you were saying."

Professor Papillon simply said, "I hope you will not repeat it."

After he went back to teaching the class, Charlus scolded Henri.

"Why are you being so obvious? Can't you just half-sleep with your eyes open? Everyone in our class is doing that."

Charlus wasn't lying. Including him, everyone in the class was unable to pay attention and felt sleepy in the class on herbology. This had been the case since they came back to Beauxbatons. Professor Papillon had started Theory of Magic with Herbology and no one was remotely interested in learning herbology. The fact that they wouldn't be tested wasn't helping either.

As for etiquette, it was comparatively better. Horse riding was very interesting. Everyone was given a foal. Everyone's foal was 1 year old, and it was magical. Everyone got a different type of foal, which they couldn't do anything about. The academy couldn't afford to give away magical horses to every student. Thus, they gave non-magical students to all those who chose not to pay extra, and magical foals to those who paid 100 galleons. They were given full ownership of the foals, which meant they could also take the horse home.

However, they were not allowed to ride the horses anywhere on the campus. The academy was very particular about it. Horse riding classes would extend till their third year, after which they could choose to leave the horse to the school, or take it home. After they entered their fourth year, they couldn't see their horse in the school. The leftover horses would be sold to purchase new foals.

The reason the academy decided for the age of the horses to be one year was that at that time, the horses would just become adults, and the students would still have time to form a bond with it. One of the main goals of the class was to teach the students a sense of responsibility.

Charlus was very lucky, or unlucky with his horse. Everyone received either an Irish Quarter Horse(non-magical) or the Clover Horse(magical). The Clover Horse was very famous for its luck. They were held in respect by the Irish muggles because every time they saw them, they would experience a good day.

Irish Quarter Horses were completely brown, while Clover Horses were completely black with a green four-leafed clover on their foreheads. The one difference that Charlus' horse had was that it was an albino. The pure white horse stood out from all of the horses, which drew a lot of attention to Charlus.

This kind of attention was very bad because it highlighted everything Charlus did, especially the mistakes he made. When he accidentally stepped into horse poop, everyone watched. When he tried to put the saddle on the horse but he didn't fasten it properly and when the horse jumped in front of him and the saddle flew right into his face, everyone watched. When he tried again but put the saddle in the wrong direction, everyone watched. And all this happened on their first day with the horse.

It was quite amusing though, to watch someone be so unlucky right next to a Clover Horse. He got the hang of saddling a horse by the end of the week, but it had still taken him a long time to do it. It was like the universe was going out of its way to make it hard for him to learn how to ride a horse.

The bell rang at 10:30, and everyone rushed out. They didn't have another class after this, so they were free to do anything they liked. Charlus chose to go to the fields where their horse-riding class took place.

Once he reached the field, he looked at all the horses. He easily spotted his albino horse. He whistled.

"Lucky! Come on boy!"

If there was something about magical creatures that brought them closer to humans than normal ones, it would be their high thinking capabilities. They may or may not be more intelligent than humans - that would depend on the magical creature in question. But most magical species were more intelligent than their fellow common species.

The albino heard Charlus and slowly trotted towards him. Once Charlus saw Lucky coming near him, he didn't wait for him to reach him and went towards the sole structure in the field - a shed combined with a building. He went into the shed and went directly to the place allocated for his horse. He was followed by Lucky. Charlus got to his horses' place and sat on the stool.

He then took the bucket full of clovers beside him and waited for the horse to stand in front of him. Once the horse took its position, he started feeding the horse the clovers. It was to be expected - the Clover Horses' favorite food was the clover itself.

After feeding the horse for an entire hour, Charlus left. The reason he was spending so much time with his horse was comical. It wasn't because he wanted to form a 'bond' with his horse. It was because he heard from his instructor that the Clover Horse brought good luck. He thought that being with his horse for a long time would overturn his bad luck.